Monday, December 05, 2005

New Orleans Cop

Cpl. BE Blache, Charity Hospital Police, New Orleans

I must admit to being a little nervous when I took this picture, having an intense genetic fear of both Charity Hospital and the police. Alone with a few officers, our voices echoing off the dead caverns of the ghost hospital, I thought, what a fucking surreal life this is. I'm not supposed to be giving this New Orleans cop orders, putting him where I want him for my photograph. I'm supposed to be drunk, down and out, on parole, in my underwear, fighting and cursing and biting, beaten by responding officers, bleeding, restrained to a gurney in that hospital, waiting for some rough stitches before I get sent back to Angola.

But instead, Officer Blache is as nice as can be, courteous despite the hell he's been living through, and I've got a big expensive camera and a sweet Yankee wife and a plane ticket back to a dry apartment in New York.

Sometimes I feel déjà vu for the life I escaped from. Do you ever feel that?

10 comments:

wl
said...

I felt the same way when I went to visit a few weeks ago in MIssissippi. Being there just makes you understand no one was untouched in this horrific disaster, and how will life be normal again. I wonder if FEMA employees and Insurance employees feel the same way.

Clayton,I passed your web site on to Nick who's doing a program for the Discovery Channel. He contacted me about the work we had been doing on the coast and I sent him to you. When I spoke with him a few days ago he said that he had talked with you. I don't know if it will help or not but I was just trying to do something. Our group has been trying to do what little we can in your area (which isn't much but we do what we can).

Please keep up the good work and I'm going to continue passing the word about your web site. I know that it's frustrating so many people seem to have forgotten since the media attention has died down. Write a book (in your spare time). You write so honestly and yet very eloquently. It will sell!

Nice COP.See,Clayton I told you All cops are not BAD..I will comment no more since I need a break because I am getting upset,angry and at times disappointed in my fellow humans,again we are not whining,stealing and cheating.We are ALL hard working people or have been hard working people(I am now retired)and we ask for help one time and get it but at what COST?Please try to understand La&Ms towns,cities and villages will never be the same and some will never be again,and that is so depressing and what a lose for this country.By the way I also served my country in the 60's.I was a NAVY corpsman,and PROUD of it,so I can bitch and complain all I want I have earned the right,even though the government does not allow me and my partner rights. It is still our home and always will be.Cheryl of Slidell

To Rachael's Cheryl - Go girl! Tell em like it is and thanks for watching Clayton's back - blood is thicker than Katrina water and You became blood when Rachael chose You! To everyone else I say - Walk a Mile in our shoes...I wonder if they could do it as gracefully as our people have done during and long before Katrina!

Thanks for the family welcome Linda.I try to do what I can,when I can.I hope people will see and finally understand people in our area of this world are still doing without,but they are doing it.To the person/s in entire areas of this country who had a storm last week 5 days without power HOW LUCKY YOU WERE.People here still don't have power or drinkable water,and it's been 3 months+.Don't believe things seen on TV,they don't always show you the truth.People are living in tents with their children,no FEMA trailers because of BULLSHIT red tape.Yes,it gets cold here granted not as cold as our Northern states but cold is cold when living in tents.You try it!I am lucky and blessed and cursed at the same time since I have a home.I would not want to live in a tent during this time of the year.When I called my family in Iowa DUMB ASSES they were being exactly that.Flooded basements do not compare to this crap ,and since they are my family I can call them DUMB ASSES.Some understand but most do not nor will they ever totally grasp it.WALK A MILE..HELL WALK TO 2 FEET IN THE SHOES OF SO MANY OF MY PEOPLE,AND DO IT WITH THE GRACE AND DIGNITY AS THEY HAVE AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO EACH AND EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES.HELL,WALK IN THIS COPS SHOES..I HAVE FRIENDS AT NOPD WHO STAYED WHILE LOSING EVERYTHING AND SOME LOSING FAMILY MEMEBRS. I ASK THAT PEOPLE LISTEN TO A JOHN LENNON SONG"IMAGINE".JUST LISTEN,AND IMAGINE......AGAIN THANKS LINDA FOR THE WARM WELCOME,AND I WILL CONTINUE TO WATCH THE KID'S BACK......LOVE TO ALL CHERYL